EPA removing tons of PCB-laden soil from New York site

ALBANY — Federal officials report removing 335,000 tons of PCBs, contaminated soil and other material from the shuttered General Motors factory in northern New York, finding more waste than expected in the Superfund cleanup.

In its 2014 project update, the Environmental Protection Agency says that’s more than four times the amount covered in the original settlement agreement.

Project manager Anne Kelly says they’ve spent about $77 million of the $121 million allocated and will need to tap other funds to complete their six-year cleanup as planned in 2016.

Advertisement

Among 89 polluted ex-GM industrial locations around the country, the 270-acre Massena site, next to the St. Lawrence River and the Mohawk Indians’ Akwesasne Reservation, is getting the largest single share of the $773 million cleanup budget established in GM’s 2011 bankruptcy.